News

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The honorable U.S. Rep. L. Tammy Duckworth will serve as the keynote speaker for the 170th ICO Commencement Ceremony to be held at 11:00 a.m., May 18, at Rockefeller Chapel. Duckworth will receive the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, during the ceremony. “Not only is Rep. Duckworth a distinguished member of Congress, she is a national hero and an amazing role model for our doctoral…

12

Dr. Valarie Conrad, the Illinois College of Optometry’s vice president of compliance and community-based services, has been appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health by Gov. Pat Quinn. She is the first optometrist to be named to the advisory group. The board’s responsibilities include advising the department director on public health policy, emergencies, and control of health hazards; reviewing department rules and program proposals;…

10

This letter was published in the Chicago Tribune on April 10. To the Editor: “Scrubbing Medicaid” (editorial, March 31) highlights an important and overdue state initiative to purge ineligible people from the Medicaid rolls. But the audit process has had an unintended consequence: Some of our most vulnerable citizens are suddenly without the health care insurance they deserve. That’s because they are unaware that they…

08

The Illinois Eye Institute’s senior director of government and external affairs, Vince Brandys, OD ’90, along with fellow alumni Timothy Wingert, OD ’79 and Pete Kehoe, OD ’84, have been inducted into the National Academies of Practice. They were installed Saturday, April 5 during the NAP Membership Banquet and Induction Ceremony in Alexandria, Va. The NAP is a nonprofit professional organization of distinguished practitioners…

01

On April 1, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn visited the Illinois Eye Institute, the state’s largest provider of vision and eye care services and a safety net for Chicago’s neediest residents. Several IEI doctors and Illinois College of Optometry students joined Illinois Optometric Association representatives in talking to Gov. Quinn about the recent changes to Medicaid, noting that the program needs to work for all Illinois…

28

On Feb. 28, Dr. Lisa Thornton shot a public service announcement for Prevent Blindness America on ICO’s campus. Dr. Thornton is a Chicago-based pediatrician who has commented for such media outlets as NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN. Design agency SparkFactor is producing the PSA.

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The National Board of Examiners in Optometry recently released statistics on the Part II Patient Assessment and Management Exam administered in December 2012. The pass rate for first-time test-takers from the Illinois College of Optometry was 98.11 percent, exceeding by 4 points the national average of 94 percent. The PAM examination is administered at the NBEO test center in Charlotte, N.C., in a single day,…

12

The Illinois College of Optometry’s school-based clinic, the Illinois Eye Institute at Princeton, received a $249,000 grant from the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation. The grant will be used to expand clinic capacity and address the unmet vision care needs of Chicago Public Schools students. CHICAGO, Feb. 12, 2013 –The Illinois College of Optometry and Chicago Public Schools have received a $249,000 grant in support of…

29

The National Board of Examiners in Optometry recently released statistics on Part III Clinical Skills Exam for the graduating class of 2012. The pass rate for first-time takers from the Illinois College of Optometry was 96.95 percent, exceeding by 8.7 points the national average of 88.25 percent. This was the first year the CSE was solely administered at the new NBEO test center in Charlotte,…